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My family was one of these who evacuated their homes and started on the roads of what was called THE Evacuation at the time.
One of my uncle was the witness of such a strafing situation where one, if biased, can say that "german planes" came to machine guns inocent civilians on the road. However during evening discussions, his recollections were that the road was occupied at the same time by units of the French army in retreat, most were infantry trying to get somewhere under orders and with officers, other groups of soldiers were straglers and lost, mixed in packages with civilians. in the middle of these one could sometimes see a real french army convoy trying to make way through the multitude with artillery and wagons pulled by horses, etc...
In that precise engagement, my uncle recollected that german planes came first at low altitude and flew over the section of road where he was moving with his bicycle, then having seen the cannons and the troopers peeled up to come back and started to shoot at the space where the soldiers were. Obviously some civilians ended up slaugthered in the process. If this type of incident happened on the road going away from Northern France towards Normandy in late May 1940, it must have happened several times in other places.
Was it deliberate policy or cruelty...If one look at it from an operational point of view today, the attack of such an objective was justified under war conditions; in most case, I am ready to believe that the pilots went for objectives of opportunity. If we need some relevant guidance we can look at operations in Iraq today.
To my knowledge, there are a few mentions of such events in some french writings unrelated to "aviation". Most of the witnesses were emotionally and physically involved and their view is obviously biased.
Last but to notice, many frenchmen that I know told me the same type of tale but in their souvenirs the planes were italians. And this subject invariably brought up an enraged emotional state in the teller. Although I have always made a point of telling that no Italian planes were involved in the fight in the north of France in May 1940, people will swear they could see italian colours on the low flying aircraft.
regards
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